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Hopping to a distinct distro doesn’t suggest you need to lose knowledge.
There are three choices you may strive.
Be certain to check these earlier than you do it.
Are you feeling that everlasting pull to leap to a distinct Linux distribution? It occurs. I’ve gone by means of that have so many instances that I’ve misplaced depend.
Migrating from one distribution to a different is not all that tough… Except you wish to retain the entire knowledge inside your private home listing (or any listing, for that matter). When you do not do one thing to avoid wasting that knowledge, you’ll lose out and have to begin throughout.
You do not need that (until you don’t have anything of significance in your house listing).
What you are able to do is dependent upon your setup and desires.
One of the best ways to modify distributions and hold your knowledge
Linux is so effectively designed which you could set up the working system in such a approach that your private home listing could be simply migrated from one distribution to a different.
The way you do that is to partition the distribution in order that your private home listing is on a separate partition from the OS.
Let me present you the fundamentals of how that is performed, demonstrating on the most recent launch of Ubuntu. Earlier than you even begin the set up, you need to both be sure there is a second disk in your machine or join an exterior SSD (with a cable quick sufficient to deal with knowledge transmission). To do that, stroll by means of the set up as you usually would till you attain the Disk Setup part.
Once you’re introduced with the 2 routes of establishing your disk, choose “Guide set up.” Within the ensuing window, you need to see your drive listed. If in case you have a secondary drive, it ought to be listed as effectively.
Choose the secondary disk after which click on +. When prompted, configure the scale you wish to use for the /dwelling partition, choose /dwelling from the Mount Level drop-down, after which click on OK.
After that, repeat the method, solely this time choose the first drive, click on +, and configure the mount level as /. Be certain to allocate the quantity of area you need for the partition (fairly presumably the whole drive), and click on OK after which Subsequent.
At this level, end the set up as you’ll usually.
Now that you’ve got configured your /dwelling partition to be on a separate disk, you may hop distributions everytime you need, ensuring to put in the OS on the first drive.
The ‘different’ technique
The opposite technique for saving your knowledge is by way of backups. That is proper, the outdated backup routine.
As for backing up /dwelling, you do not wish to again up the whole listing. As a substitute, again up your person listing inside /dwelling (corresponding to /dwelling/jack) to an exterior drive (even a USB flash drive). You possibly can both again up every part in that listing, or solely the folders containing the information/information you wish to save.
Do take into accout, nonetheless, that there are hidden folders that include app configurations, caches, and different bits. Due to that, I might suggest backing up every part in your house listing.
When you’re unsure which backup device to make use of, I like to recommend Déjà Dup, TimeShift, or Fortunate Backup (every of which could be put in from the usual repositories).
Upon getting that taken care of, be sure to again up every other vital knowledge, though a very powerful knowledge on a desktop machine can be in your house listing.
Now you can set up the brand new OS. I might be sure to create your private home listing on a secondary drive, so you do not have to undergo this the following time you hop.
After the set up completes, reboot, join the drive housing the information, open your file supervisor, and begin copying issues over.
Don’t merely copy your person listing from the secondary drive to the /dwelling listing on the first drive, as you might run into permissions or possession points.
A 3rd possibility
There’s another choice that is a form of hybrid. As an instance you have copied your vital directories out of your /dwelling to an exterior (or secondary inner) drive.
As a substitute of copying these directories, you may merely hyperlink them. As an instance you have copied every part in ~/Paperwork to a secondary drive that’s mounted at /media/jack/drive1/, and also you wish to hyperlink your ~/Paperwork listing with it.
First, delete the ~/Paperwork listing (assuming it is empty) with the command:
rm -rf ~/Paperwork
Subsequent, challenge the next command out of your unique dwelling listing:
It is best to now see a brand new ~/Paperwork listing, containing every part in /media/jack/drive1/Paperwork.
And there you’ve it.
My final suggestion is that you just check these strategies on a spare machine. On prime of that, irrespective of which route you’re taking, at all times again up your knowledge.
